With so many consumers joining social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, it goes without saying that photo assignments will follow. Social networking sites are becoming household brands to this expanding group of consumers, making it easier for people to stay in touch with others, and providing new opportunities for savvy business owners to promote their businesses. Photography is a very relationship oriented business and adopting an effective social media strategy can be a valuable addition to your marketing plan!

How can a professional photographer use social media to drive increased business volume? For starters, they can show off their skills by putting one or more high quality portfolios on a couple of popular social media networks. Studies have shown that looking at pictures represents more than 75% of the activity on all social networks. People love to look at images and will “spread the word” about your artistic and technical talents. As traffic and fans build, your social networking pages will serve as a powerful “on ramp” to bring significantly increased traffic to your existing website.  For photographers, a dedicated web site is an absolute necessity, but the old “storefront on internet main street” model is rapidly giving way to the more chaotic, social media “crowd in town square” metaphor. This model is far more effective at rapidly disseminating valuable information and ideas, since it relies on the unique “one to many” community features unique to modern social media.

The attractiveness of social media lies in its ability to communicate appealing, yet fundamentally personal content or impressions. As an accomplished photographer, you have an unfair advantage here, as your images always convey unique and powerful perspectives of everyday places and events. For optimal appeal, all you need to add is some personal and insightful perspective about the location or event.  For example, if you include an environmental shot from a wedding, add a few words to perhaps explain why you use the location. Something like “the expansive north facing windows in the conservatory offer bright yet soft natural lighting in virtually all seasons.”  For you, this should be easy, since that is the reason you use the location in the first place!  For that perfect baby shot, you might add “Julie was a little out of sorts that day, but when her puppy ambled in she settled down as if finally protected!” A few comments like these, accompanying your best images will make you a “hit” to your target audiences. They will show why you are an insightful and exacting professional, who does everything possible to get that perfect image for each of your clients.  It explains how and why your images are at once personal yet spectacular. Remember, even if your displayed images are not exactly what a given client might want, after looking at your best and reading your perspectives, they will be comfortable that your intuitive visual skills and techniques, coupled with your personal desire to please, will result in that perfect image, be it for senior citizens, families, married couples, babies or graduating seniors.

But there is more to the magic of social media than just your own perspectives. In the past, most photographers judged whether someone liked their work by looking at the number of "hits” on their web pages. This methodology, however, is flawed. Social media also enables public feedback and discussion as you exhibit your best stuff…in the town square! It is also extremely important to acknowledge what many refer to as "the 3 C's," those being conversation, community, and collaboration. You need to be prepared to interact with individuals who may be interested in their own works, including other photographers as well. Before the internet, few people knew about many accomplished photographers. Today, individuals around the world have access to pictures from a wide variety of artists, and a photographer's needs to use this capability to maximum advantage. Through opinions received from more prominent and experienced photographers, novice professionals can learn what their own work lacks and in this manner, advance their own professional development. Build a connection with everyone who comes to the social networking site looking at your pictures. Engender trust with all these potential clients, and realize that everyone who is interested in your pictures has many friends with whom they can share their opinions. In this way, you can build a much larger community of followers who appreciate your work and have the potential of using you for pictures of their own life!

I know all this may seem like a lot of work, but your growing social media presence will make you real, and clients who call on you will feel like they have known you and your work for years!

As a rule, contests have always been a tried and true way for any business to gain visibility, brand recognition and most importantly, to grow the business. With the explosion of the internet as not only an education and informational tool, but also a booming hub of cultural activities, the opportunities and audience for a contest has grown exponentially. With the clever use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, an adept photographer can build and grow their business through viral marketing strategies.

Whether you run a blog on the subject or have a brick and mortar Photography Studio, you can take advantage of many of these photography marketing ideas to grow the business you have and maybe even expand into some new areas. It does not matter if you understand social media or not, it is important to factor its incredible power and possibility. Think about it this way: Millions of people around the world tap into these sites every day. How many of these people are interested in your niche? How many people have no idea who you are? Social media is your chance to increase those numbers. If done right, you can tap into the greatest source of free advertising available.

Here are 5 great ideas for running and promoting a contest with social media

1)         Referral Contest – One successful contest is a referral contest. With this type of contests, your current customers are challenged to recommend your business to a friend or family member. This can be done in several ways. An effective method to use is a Facebook Fan Page. For example, have a contest where the first person to help you get 5 or 10 new fans on your Facebook fan page.

2)         Photo Contest – This one is not only a great for publicity, but also fun and enganging for your customers. You can either post photos from your own shoots, or have your users submit their own photos. Then have everyone either vote or post a comment on your blog, with the winning photographer (or subject) winning a prize. You can take this even further by running a drawing for everyone who comments/votes and giving out more prizes.

3)         Facebook Status or Twitter Contest – This contest has some of the greatest potential to go viral. To run this contest, you must have two criteria: the winner must be a fan or follower and they must make a status update or tweet announcing your contest. Each tweet or update  (Limit 1/day for a short period time) earns an entry into the contest. Depending on how large the prizes are, you can give out one large prize or several small prizes throughout the contest. If you want to keep people interested, consider giving away small weekly prizes with the chance to win a grand prize at the end of the contest.

4)         Creative Photo Shoot  - Have your customers tweet or submit to you their creative photo shoot ideas. Once all entries are received, narrow them down to 5-10 shoots and hold a poll. You can also do this tournament style to generate more buzz. When the votes are in, the winning idea wins the photo shoot of their creation.

5)         Seasonal Contests – Everybody loves seasons and holidays (and there is no shortage of them). Try running a contest for one of them. You can have users submit holiday-themed photos or ideas. You can also just use the holiday as an excuse to hold a contest. For example, you can run a contest for a free Easter, Christmas or Halloween shoot. You will be sure to have plenty of people (especially families) jumping on board to win.

These are just a few ideas for growing your business through a social media contest. One of these may work for you, but make sure to play to your strengths and do what is best for your customers. Take some time and do some research on how each website works, so that you are able to make the most out of each social media outlet. Be creative and with the right steps, you can push your traffic through the roof in no time. With luck, many of these new visitors will not only be interested in your contest, but will also turn into regular, loyal customers.

This is a guest contribution by Georgia McCabe:  Georgia spent 30 years as a Sr. Executive in the computer and photo industry at IBM, Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm. As a driving force in conceiving and executing breakthrough approaches to the photo printing, sharing and delivery market place, she literally “changed the rules” for a category undergoing massive technological change and re-invention. She is a certified social media strategist, and is a market and branding consultant helping businesses utilize the tools and power of social networking. Georgia McCabe

Photographers need customers plain and simple. Getting the word out on your photography services can be made easier with the help of social media marketing, twitter, Facebook and by running online contests. Facebook is free and easy to set up. It is no longer an option if you want a Facebook fan page: if you want to be a success, you need one!

The Top 5 Tips on Why a Photographer Needs a Facebook Account;

1. To spread the word. The beauty of Facebook lies in the fact that most, if not all, of your high school, college and other business and social contacts most likely have one. Reach out to these people without purely marketing to them. Subtly reminding them that photography is what you do for a living may be enough to open up new business. These old high school buddies will have need of a photographer someday, or know someone who does and the simple reminder that you are a professional, may be enough to spark a job. Request friends of friends and build a network quickly. 

2. To make new contacts. First and foremost, you will want to keep it friendly. Facebook posts and updates should not all be about getting new business or self-promoting, rather, allow your contacts to see both your work life and a glimpse at your daily life. People who feel comfortable with you as a person, will be much more likely to recommend you to their friends and family who need photography services.

3. To direct people to your blog or website. Facebook has a great function that lets people see whenever you update your blog. You could also update your status letting people know that there is a new post. This serves two functions: updating brings traffic to your blog and keeps your Facebook current. A current, active Facebook keeps people engaged with you and your name at the forefront of their minds. Link your regular blog traffic to your Facebook with a Facebook button or small screen shot and vice versa.

4. To network with other photographers. Join photography groups on Facebook. Use the search function to network with local and global groups that cater to photographers. Find a professional photo lab or discover contest ideas and successful photography marketing ideas from other professional photographers who market on Facebook.

5. To make a name for yourself. Having a Facebook and Facebook fan page is a great way to brand yourself. The personal photo shot you post and the information you give all add up to a particular image. If you are careful about the information you share and how you share it, the rewards will be enormous. Build your brand by customizing your Facebook fan page and displaying the best photos you have to offer. Social media marketing is a matter of strategy and if done properly can turn into viral marketing, meaning that the people you reach would never have heard of you without the use of the web.

Top 5 Tips to Broaden Your Audience for Your Photographs

Great photographs are the intersection of three important factors – a great photographic eye, a great photographic situation and a substantial audience to view and appreciate the result. The old days where people anxiously awaited proofs, visited conventional photo galleries or requested and kept books from stock agencies are history. Today there are countless web sites showcasing the artistic craft of working photographers. These sites are often directly coupled with social media sites or employ technologies like Web 2.0 that allow real, two way communications between audience and artist. In order to get broad exposure of your work, you really need to make some of your best work viewable online. There are many good online vehicles that can showcase photographs. You can create an online gallery and connect it to your website or blog. Another option is to display your work employing dedicated photo-sharing sites like Flickr, Google Albums, HHImageHost or SmugMug or you can create display albums using popular social networks like Facebook.

Tip #1 Blog and Show Off Your Expertise

Most working photographers already have their own website, but if you really want to make the leap and create an online following, add a blog to your website.  While your website displays information about yourself, your business and your products, it typically remains relatively constant. Your blog, on the other hand, should contain a wealth of information that continually changes and grows and is actually the focal point of your “social media” strategy. You can blog about any number of things ranging from simple tips and tricks to a narrative of an interesting and successful photo shoot. You might review interesting new tools or products.  Talk about your customers and your experience with them or perhaps even include comments from some of your customers relating their views of the photographic experience. Let your imagination go, but you will be surprised how easy it is to come up with truly compelling and interesting content.

Tip #2 Create a Facebook FanPage…It Is Free and Easy 

With over 400 million members, Facebook is a great way to show off your work and subtly advertise your skills.  You can create a Facebook “Fan Page,” name it and invite others to join.  Run a simple contest, post images of your work, talk about your product and maybe even offer occasional specials. Most importantly, offer some simple, yet valuable advice to your target market.  Give people a reason to keep coming back and they will become your social network “word of mouth.”

Tip #3 Heard of Google Knol…Give It A Try

Google Knol is an information sharing site (sort of a viral Wikipedia) that allows you to share your unique expertise and knowledge…and build a personal following. You create a Knol through any Google account.  Since you are a photographer, make sure to show off your best photographs and include links to the other social sites you are on.  Once you have informational articles written for your blog, you can change them up a bit and repurpose them as Knols.

Tip #4 Expand Your Reach With Be A Photo Sharing Site

Sites like Flickr are not only a great place for showcasing your photos, they are also a great way to store and reference collections of photographs from other web locations. For example, you can use creative tools like FlickrSlideShow generator to arrange multiple images into a slideshow.  Once the show is created, copy the supplied HTML and add it to your blog, Facebook Fan Page or use Twitter to post a link.  You can also use Flickr to get great feedback on your work.  The network is large and people love to give feedback.  If you are worried about copyright they have a great tool PicMarkr which allows you to create a custom watermark and place it on your Flickr images as well as exercise full control over printing and downloads.  Not to be outdone, SmugMug, Zenfolio, and Photobucket are other sites that offer similar capabilities.  H&H, like many professional labs, also offers studio branded image sharing and output services using our HHImageHost platform. There are lots of powerful options, but an on-line photo sharing and output site will definitely allow you to greatly expand your customer reach.

Tip #5 Twitter is a Powerful Tool To Awaken Your Audience

Twitter is a powerful publicity tool but is often misunderstood. When you have new content posted to your blog, photo sharing site or you own site, use Twitter as a pointer to your new content by publishing a few tweets!  Remember to ask for feedback. You can us search.twitter.com with an applicable keyword such as “wedding photographer.”  You can even constrain the search to a zip code or search within a certain mile radius.  Once you search collects the applicable audience, tweet them with a link to your content!  You will have to brief as Twitter has a message limit of only 140 characters. You probably want to use a URL shortening service such as Bit.ly or TinyUrl for your link to avoid using up too much of the message limit. Twitter doesn’t directly support any attachments, but as usual, a number of third-party services have sprung up to fill the void, although mostly for consumers without personal web sites or blogs. The list expands daily but you might want to check some of them out. Look at Mobypicture, Pikchur, Posterous, Twitpic and Tweetphoto. 

As the web moves toward more and more two-way conversation, Twitter is clearly becoming one of the most important ways for people to highlight interesting content.  Even though Twitter has a 140 character limit, as the saying goes, a good picture is worth well more than a thousand words!

The options for social media marketing in photography are endless. Used correctly, social media sites can represent powerful new marketing tools for photographers, allowing images and compelling content to be broadcast to huge networks of potential customers. But remember, social networks are virtual versions of crowded town squares, where catchy images and compelling content are required to grab the attention of the entire crowd. It may seem like a lot of work, but effective use of social media is a lot like “the miracle of compound interest,” your following and reputation will continue to grow as time goes on!

Today, virtually every successful professional photographer has a sales website. Many even have implemented some sort of marketing plan to aid them in selling their creative services.  Few however, have even begun to recognize the tremendous advantages of implementing and adding an effective social media strategy.

Social media marketing is very different from conventional website marketing. Success in social media venues doesn’t follow from directly advertising your services or product. Social media marketing revolves around delivering valuable and compelling information to target consumers.  The viral nature of social platforms will make them extremely effective “on-ramps” for your existing website by separating you from your competitors in those inevitable Google information searches.

5 Simple Tips to Get You Started on the Social Media Bandwagon.

Tip #1 Create a Blog

If you don’t already have one, create a blog and connect it to your existing website.  Start with simple, one page posts of general interest to your target audience.  Keep the articles short, but try to post something new at least once or twice a week. You are not trying to impress your fellow photographers, but are trying to provide information to your actual customers. You would be surprised how many consumers would be interested in knowing simple things like how solid colors work best for pictures or how a fundraiser can be enhanced through event photography.  Post about an environmental or child shoot you did and include a few selected pictures.  Show off, but don’t try to sell a new product or service. You don’t need to do extensive research, just write about things you already know and have already done. Be creative and offer up some of your experienced advice and tips. Here is a link that may get your creative juices going.  Be sure to set up an automatic email system (Aweber or Constant Contact) to capture resulting leads. 

Tip #2 Sign Up on Social Media Sites

Join and have a complete profile on at least 2 social media sites. Actually, we suggest you join three.  Our top three choices would be Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.   The “help” functions on the sites themselves are pretty comprehensive and should get you get going with little trouble.  You need to remain aggressively active on these sites, making connections, monitoring and continually posting new and valuable content. Sign up for Lazyfeed or Google Reader, either of which allow you to automatically monitor specific topics of interest and easily see what other people are blogging about.  Pass interesting blog links on to your followers.  Join groups on LinkedIn as they are a terrific source of good information on what your colleagues are doing.   Relax, this is not nearly as hard as it sounds and I guarantee that you will be amazed at the visibility, clients and referrals that will come your way as you become a visible expert in your area.

Tip#3 Utilize Video

Video is a uniquely powerful tool and today almost anyone with any digital skills can create their own web video content. In addition to YouTube, there are many other free video hosting sites that accept uploads.  If you want the best search ranking, video is definitely the way to go.  Do a video of one of your shoots, showing how you interact with your client. Show unique environmental hot spots where you take people for wedding or senior portrait shoots.  Animoto.com is another site that you can use, even if you don’t have actual video content.  It allows you to turn your best still photos and music into beautiful videos.  The great thing about Animoto videos is that you can easily post them to the various social sites as well as link to them from your blog and even sell them to your clients. 

Tip#4  Get Help On-line

If this is all new to you and you are not sure how to get started, there are a number of places on-line that have tutorials that will help you get started.  These are just a couple to get you started, but if you search Google there are many more to select from.  Here are a few links. 

Top 7 Twitter Tutorials:                 http://bit.ly/alBGO9

How to Use Facebook:                     http://bit.ly/9H7Fvu

LinkedIn 101:                                      http://bit.ly/aO5DjX

Free 5 Part Series on blogging:    http://bit.ly/bxgu4K

Tip # 5  Outsource or Barter Your Expertise and Learn From Others

If you feel that all of this is too much of a distraction from your core business, you can outsource everything to a rapidly growing list of companies and individuals that offer these services. As a photographer, you already have very unique skills that are in tremendous demand in the social media arena.  You are a visual artist and images are absolutely critical to this venue. You would be surprised at what you could arrange for by bartering a few head shots or by doing some absolutely trivial Photoshop (compared to retouching) work on a Facebook fan page.

Remember, unlike print or other media placements, your digital content remains available long after posting, continually adding to your positioning as a the “go to” expert in professional photography.

Once again, I'm turning the blog over to Teri Ritter for some marketing strategies: 

Spring has sprung and Mother’s Day is fast approaching.  Now is the time to be planning and holding your promotional sessions targeting Mother’s Day……

Here are some thought starters for you…..

Contact a local restaurant or country club and present a plan allowing you to take family portraits during the Mother’s Day brunch.  Make the mini session complimentary.  This provides the facility with a benefit for their customers and allows you to showcase your work.  Set up an appointment for the participants to come by the studio and view the images.  Handle this as you would any sales session and since you’ve selected a facility that caters to your target, you’ve already pre-screened your customers.  Be certain to set up a nice display of your work where you are photographing, this way you begin the sales cycle with the first click.

Are you taking advantage of all that FaceBook is offering?  Another opportunity for a Mother’s Day Promotion is to offer a Free FaceBook Mother’s Day Party.  For 3 hours on the Saturday before Mother’s Day offer free mini sessions at your studio.  Give a complimentary photo for use on FaceBook to the participants. This image should be of Mom and her children…..what Mom wouldn’t want that image as her profile photo on Facebook?  When you present the photos for mom to select her complimentary photo do it in such a way that the opportunity to purchase more images is apparent….Don’t forget to showcase all your great new products!!!!!